Primary pupils are being taught how to spot fake news as part of a major new project officially launched in Stoke-on-Trent.

St Mark’s CE Primary, in Shelton, has become the first school in England to complete the NewsWise scheme, which helps nine to 11-year-olds understand what makes a news story and how to distinguish between bias, opinion and balanced reporting.

The Year 5 children spent today wrestling with a range of fun tasks before working in editorial teams to produce their own scripted TV news pieces.

It included looking at headlines about a crime-busting parrot, a giant rat caught in London, US President Donald Trump launching a TV channel about gorillas, and boys wearing skirts to school in protest at not being allowed to turn up in shorts. Pupils had to work out which was real and which was made up, using research to back up their conclusions.

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NewsWise – funded by Google – has brought together the National Literacy Trust, the Guardian Foundation and the PSHE Association. As well as offering workshops in selected schools, they have developed a series of free online resources that any school can use.

Ahmad Khan, aged nine, checks out one of the news websites

It comes after a survey found only 3.1 per cent of primary pupils have the critical literacy skills to tell if a news story is real or fake, and that bogus news is driving a culture of fear and anxiety among young people.

Project director Angie Pitt said: “It’s to give them skills to navigate news online and make sure it’s real before they decide to share it.”

Elements of the scheme have already been piloted in other schools, but St Mark’s has been the first to try the whole package. It was picked as Stoke-on-Trent hosts a National Literacy Trust hub.

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Pupil Ahmad Khan has found the sessions very useful. The nine-year-old, from Middleport, said: “I look at news headlines once a day – normally at sport on the BBC. My favourite football team is Barcelona.

“The BBC has been around for a really long time and if they did something that was fake, the Government would say ‘take it off’. But now I’ve learnt how to figure out if other news is fake.”

Faizaan Gulfraz, aged nine, gives a fake news story the thumbs down

Tips include looking at website addresses to see if they seem suspect and doing internet searches to check if more than one news outlet has covered a story.

Nine-year-old Laaibah Noor, from Shelton, said: “If they’ve only got one person saying something, it might not be real.”

Classmate Faizaan Gulfraz has also enjoyed sorting fact from fiction. The nine-year-old, from Shelton, said: “I like reading about hurricanes and tornadoes.”

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NewsWise was developed on the back of a fake news inquiry led by the House of Commons’ digital, culture, media and sport select committee.

Laura Butler, a teacher at St Mark’s, said it’s had other knock-on benefits with children’s writing skills. She added: “They didn’t know a lot about how news reports were written before. They have been really engaged with the project.”

To download the resources, schools can visit www.theguardian.com/newswise.